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CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I.
THE ETHICAL PROBLEM.
1. Preliminary definition of ethics. What is morality? What is
conduct? Conduct and character
2. In what sense is ethics practical? Relations of moral theory
and practice
3. Relations of moral faith and ethical insight. Impossibility of
absolute moral scepticism
PAGE
3
5
9
4. Business of ethics to define the good or the moral ideal, by
scrutiny of the various interpretations of it.
11
5. Ancient and modern conceptions of the moral ideal compared.
(a) Duty and the chief good; their logical connection.
sonality as moral ideal
Per-
14
6. (b) Ancient ideal political, modern individualistic; the inade-
quacy of each, and their reconciliation in personality
7. Various aspects of the ethical problem: (a) the good; (b) the
right; (c) moral law; (d) conscience; (e) virtue; (f) duty ;
(g) pleasure; (h) altruism; (i) self-sacrifice
16
18
CHAPTER II.
THE METHOD OF ETHICS.
1. Natural and normative sciences. Ethics a science of the latter
2. Its method scientific, not metaphysical
3. Two misunderstandings of the term 'normative science'
24
31
35
CHAPTER III.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS.
1. Necessity of psychological basis; an inadequate view of human
life rests upon an inadequate view of human nature
2. Voluntary activity presupposes involuntary; various forms of
the latter
3. Voluntary activity, how distinguished from involuntary; volition
as control of impulsive and instinctive tendencies; contrast of
animal and human life
38
40
42
4. The process of volition: its various elements, (a) pause;
deliberation; (c) choice.
45
5. Nature and character. Effort. Second nature
49
1115
6. Limitations of volition: (a) economy; (b) continuity; (c) fixity
of character
53
7. Intellectual elements in volition: (a) conception; (b) memory;
8. Will and feeling. Is pleasure the object of choice?
63
PART I.
THE MORAL IDEAL.
TYPES OF ETHICAL THEORY: HEDONISM, RATIONALISM, EUDÆMONISM 79
HEDONISM, OR THE ETHICS OF SENSIBILITY.
I.-Development of the Theory.
1. (4) Pure Hedonism, or Cyrenaicism
2. (B) Modified Hedonism: (a) Ancient, or Epicureanism
Its chief variations
from Ancient: (1) optimistic v. pessimistic; (2) altruistic v.
83
88
3. (b) Modern Hedonism, or Utilitarianism.
egoistic; (3) qualitative v. quantitative
4. (c) Evolutional Utilitarianism
5. (d) Rational Utilitarianism
94
101
108
7. (b) Failure of sensibility to provide the principle of its own dis-
tribution. (1) Within the individual life. (2) Between the
10. (e) Its inadequate interpretation of character
11. (ƒ) The final metaphysical alternative
12. The merit and demerit of Hedonism
141
144
146
RATIONALISM, OR THE ETHICS OF REASON.
1. The rationalistic point of view. The two forms of ethical Rationalism-extreme and moderate. Its sources
2. (4) Extreme Rationalism. (a) Ancient: (a) Cynicism. (B)
Stoicism. How it differs from Cynicism: (1) idealistic v.
naturalistic; (2) cosmopolitan v. individualistic; (3) the Stoic
melancholy
3. (b) Modern: (a) Christian asceticism
4. (8) Kantian transcendentalism
5. Criticism of extreme Rationalism. (1) Dualism of reason and
sensibility; (2) formalism; (3) egoism; (4) self-sacrifice; (5)
source in metaphysical dualism. Transition to moderate
Rationalism
6. (B) Moderate Rationalism. (a) Its beginnings in Greek ethics.
7. (b) Its modern expressions. (a) Butler's theory of conscience .
8. Criticism of Butler's theory. (1) Its hedonistic tendency; (2)
its psychological character; (3) its dualism (i) of virtue and
prudence, (ii) of benevolence and self-love
151
9. (8) Intuitionism. Its divergences from Butler. Its defects:
(1) its abstractness; (2) what is intuitive to the individual
may be the result of the race's experience; (3) its formal
defects: it is (i) a mere psychology of the moral conscious-
ness, (ii) a mere re-statement in scientific terms of the or-
dinary moral consciousness; (4) its ethical insight
10. The service of Rationalism to ethical theory
11. Transition to Eudæmonism
154
161
163
164
170
171
176
179
184
185
5. The ethical problein: the meaning of self-realisation
197
6. Definition of personality: the individual and the person
199
7. The rational or personal self: its intellectual and ethical func-
tions compared
201
8. The sentient or individual self
203
9. "Be a person"
205
10. "Die to live." Meaning of self-sacrifice
11. Pleasure and happiness
12. Egoism and altruism
13. The ethical significance of law: the meaning of duty. Animal
innocence and "knowledge of good and evil." Various forms
of law. Its absoluteness
14. Expressions of Eudæmonism: (a) in philosophy. (a) Butler.
(8) Hegel. (7) Plato. (8) Aristotle
15. (b) In literature
PART II.
THE MORAL LIFE.
INTRODUCTORY. VIRTUES AND DUTIES. THE UNITY OF THE MORAL
206
209
210
212
218
227
239
9. Necessity of transcending our individuality. The ideal life
10. Dangers of moral idealism
254
256
I.-The Social Virtues: Justice and Benevolence.
1. The relation of the social to the individual life
2. Social virtue-its nature and its limit
3. Its two aspects, negative and positive: justice and benevolence.
Their mutual relations and respective spheres
273
4. Benevolence
5. Benevolence and culture
II. The social organisation of life: the ethical basis and
functions of the State.
6. The social organisation of life: society and the State
7. Is the State an end-in-itself?
8. The ethical basis of the State
9. The limit of State action.
10. The ethical functions of the State: (a) justice
11. (b) Benevolence
12. The permanence of the State
Note. The Theory of Punishment
MORAL PROGRESS.
1. The nature of moral progress
2. The law of moral progress: the discovery of the individual
3. Aspects of the law of moral progress: (a) Transition from an
4. (b) Subordination of the sterner to the gentler virtues
5. (c) Wider scope of virtue.
Conclusion
ᏢᎪᎡᎢ III.
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287
289
294
296
304
310
312
317
323
332
337
342
347
5. The resulting metaphysical problem. The problem of freedom
is the problem of personality. The alternative solutions—
the empirical and the transcendental.
372
6. The transcendental solution
375
7. Difficulties of the transcendental solution: (a) psychological
difficulty offered by the presentational theory of will
378